1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to automatic selection of payment instruments. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for constructing and using a payment instrument repository for making an automatic selection of a payment instrument when making a purchase in an online environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Online purchases have become a viable and widely-used environment for consumers to shop. Typically, a consumer goes to the World Wide Web (Web) site of a particular merchant to browse items available for purchasing or to find a particular item. Once an item is found, the consumer then proceeds to purchase that item by entering payment and shipping information to the merchant's Web site. The merchant's Web site manages the transaction and, upon confirmation, informs the consumer that the item is on its way.
Various schemes have been devised to improve upon the current state of online purchasing. For example, J.R. Trinity, U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,018, Method of Monitoring Credit Card Charges (Aug. 25, 1987) discusses a way of monitoring credit card charges on a single credit card to aid a consumer to stay within a predetermined budget. Specifically, Trinity teaches a method for monitoring an individual credit card account particularly during a predetermined monitoring period. The steps of the method include the steps of setting up a form, preferably on a piece of erasable material of wallet card size. A series of numerals is provided on the card adapted to accommodate the step of being checked so as to identify a particular amount owing on the account. A series of individual purchase amounts is identified with a series or group of spaces opposite to, or related to, each monetary amount for the step of entry of indicia identifying a purchase of that amount or approximately that amount. A masking member is provided to accommodate the step of covering the spaces associated with one or more of the monetary purchase amounts to remind and warn the user of his intent not to make purchases in those amounts in order to remain within a predetermined budget. Further groups or series of spaces is provided for the step of entering indications of amounts of payments made during the monitoring period and the total of the balance owing at any particular time or, on the other hand, the remaining balance of the user's credit limit that has not been obligated.
A universal electronic transaction card serving on behalf of a number of different cards is discussed. S. G. Pitroda, U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,038, Universal Electronic Transaction Card Including Receipt Storage and System and Methods of Conducting Electronic Transactions (Dec. 31, 1996) teaches a universal electronic transaction card (“UET card”) capable of serving as a number of different credit cards, bank cards, identification cards, employee cards, medical cards and the like. A display is provided that is touch-sensitive and that provides the user with a number of graphical images which enable the user to selectively chose the type of card to use for a transaction, and to then choose a particular card to use with the transaction. After the choice is made, a graphic image appears on the display which looks like the face of the plastic card, including the account number, the user's name, the name of the card company and its logo. Thereafter, the user presents the UET card to the point of sales terminal for a sales transaction. After proper verification with the main computer of the service provider, the sales transaction information is transferred and stored in the UET card by the point of sales terminal to eliminate paper receipts and facilitate future storage, verification and analysis for billing, budgeting and financial management. The disclosure also includes methods of issuing account authorization to a UET card, a method of transferring transactional and account information between a UET card and a personal computer or mainframe computer, a method of using the UET card as a remote terminal for a mainframe computer, and a method of conducting an electronic transaction.
A device and method for displaying advertising materials to a potential purchaser coincident with the making of a financial transaction by the purchaser is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,888, Advertising Device and Method for Use at Point of Sale (Nov. 30, 1999) to W. N. Vaughn, K. R. Johnson, and G. O'Brien Garrett. Specifically, the device comprises at least one transaction recording card sized to attach to and conform to dimensions of a standard credit or debit card and includes a format for making a record of a transaction associated with the purchaser. Third party advertising material is placed on the recording card in a format which may be viewed by the purchaser at a time and place of making the record of the transaction. The method comprises the steps of a) identifying a group of purchasers having a common interest in a particular market; b) selecting a group of businesses which desire to access the group of purchasers for third party advertising purposes; c) producing at least one transaction recording card having a format for making a record of a financial transaction associated with the purchaser; d) placing the advertising material on the recording card in a format which may be viewed by the purchaser at a time and place of making the record of the financial transaction, and e) providing means for attachment of the transaction recording card and associated advertising material to a financial transaction card which can be carried in a wallet of the purchaser.
Leveraging customer loyalty to a merchant is explored in U.S. Pat. No. 6,345,261, Customer Loyalty Investment Program (Feb. 5, 2002) to R. S. Feidelson, C. E. Peters, T. C. Parrott, and J. P. Larizza. The disclosure is directed to a customer loyalty investment program system and method wherein purchase rebates are used to provide the customer with an important fund including merchant securities. The system illustratively includes a web server containing a web site and a database server containing a member information, merchant information, fund information, purchase/rebate information, on-line financial products/services information, and an input/output means. The method may include negotiating rebate percentages with merchants, registering members, receiving rebates from the merchants based on member purchases, investing the rebates in the fund, including securities of at least one merchant, and issuing shares in the fund to members based on rebates received as a result of their respective purchases. The composition of the fund preferably reflects the rebates received from the merchants. In the credit card embodiment, rebates may be received from both a credit card issuer and merchants agreeing to provide rebates based on member purchases using the credit card.
Smart card financial transactions are discussed in European Patent Application Number EP 0949593 A2, System, Method and Apparatus for Value Exchange Utilizing Value-Storing Apparatus (published Oct. 13, 1999) to J. C. Kawan, M. Kogen, and R. Munoz. A system, method and apparatus for exchanging value using a smart card in a financial transaction is disclosed. The system includes a smart card having a contact interface and a contactless interface interactive with a closed purse application and an open purse application controlled by a microprocessor. The closed purse application contains application-specific value, while the open purse contains general value. The application-specific value and general value are each compatible within the system of the invention to perform and settle the financial transaction. The financial transaction may include the smart card communicating with a load terminal or a transaction terminal to add or change the amount of value on the smart card. Further, included is auto-load functionality for adding an amount of value to the smart card. Finally, applications such as a transportation application and a loyalty application are described.
Digital wallet architecture is discussed in SWAPEROO: A Simple Wallet Architecture for Payments, Exchanges, Refunds, and Other Operations; Neil Daswani, Dan Boneh, Hector Garcia-Molina, Steven Ketchpel, and Andreas Paepcke; Stanford University, Computer Science Department. Stanford, Calif. 94305. Specifically proposed is a digital wallet architecture that is extensible, i.e. can support multiple existing and newly developed instruments and protocols, is symmetric, i.e. has common instrument management and protocol management interfaces across end-user, vendor, and bank applications, is non-web-centric, i.e. can be implemented in non-web environments, and is client-driven, i.e. the user initiates all operations, including wallet invocation.
Finally, 2002 Microsoft Corporation discloses an online wallet on its Web page, http://www.microsoft.com/netservices/passport/overview.asp, .NET passport Overview, Microsoft .net services, NET Passport express purchase. Specifically, such service allows for online purchasing by enabling a consumer to create a .NET Passport “wallet” that stores their billing and shipping information in a secured location. The disclosure further discusses how consumers can make online purchases at any participating .NET Passport express purchase sites by signing in to their wallet and, with a single click, sending their purchase information to the merchant instantly, eliminating the need to retype it. The data is sent securely using SSL encryption.
What is lacking in the online purchasing market is a mechanism for providing the best value to the consumer based upon the best combination of payment instrument and discount, coupon, or any other promotional advantage offered to the consumer.
Typically, today, a consumer receives coupons, discounts, and any other promotional advantage offering through the U.S. postal service, by clipping coupons out of a newspaper, saving online coupons, and the like. In other words, the consumer tracks and manages such redeemable savings items.
What's more, these coupons, discounts, and the like many times are connected to particular payment instrument banks. For example, a consumer's a credit card company may offer a discount on a motel room rate to the consumer if that card is used. So, it is up to the consumer at that point of sale, to be cognizant that a discount exists for at least one of his or her payment instruments.
The problem has not been solved of providing automatic tracking of discounts, coupons, etc., and automatic suggesting of a best payment instrument to the consumer at the point of sale or transaction. Also, while static advantages of using a particular payment instrument are generally known to a consumer, such as frequent flier miles, the user has to make a concerted effort to keep track of dynamic discounts, such as those in effect “until the end of the month,” or “until year-end,” and so on.
Finally, while consumers are now used to providing personal and private payment instrument information online for a single payment instrument, consumers are still somewhat skeptical to provide personal and private information pertaining to more than one of, or all of, their payment instruments. Such reluctance of providing more information to an online purchasing system may not be in the best interest of the consumer, as better decisions can be made with more information.
Conversely, typically today, merchants do not provide purchasing information of the consumer when requesting payment for the item purchased by that consumer. Again, such reluctance of the merchant to provide more information about a purchase may not necessarily be in the best interest of the merchant. It is possible that if the merchant provided more information about each purchase, such as what was purchased and how many, etc., then this information can be used to the advantage of the merchant, such as facilitate future purchases from the merchant.
It would therefore be advantageous to automatically store, track, and manage a user's coupons, discounts, promotional offerings, etc., on a regular basis.
It would be advantageous to provide value to a user by suggesting the best payment instrument that can save the user money, based upon the stored and tracked coupons, discounts, and the like.
It would be advantageous to provide an incentive to both consumers and merchants to put forth more information, respectively, so that the information put forth can be used to provide them with further advantages and opportunities.